Story Telling in the Dentist’s Chair

Meet Dr. Olaf. He was my dentist this morning.

So today I was taken unwillingly to that medieval torture chamber known as “The Dentist’s Office” for a three hour procedure. I was given two doses of Valium beforehand to make me a little more amenable to entering the chamber of horrors and enduring whatever sadistic tortures awaited me therein, but I assure you, they could not break me that easily. I resisted as long as possible until I was finally too out of my mind from the Valium to even realize where I was, at which point I groggily had some awareness of being guided to a chair that vaguely reminded me of Picard’s from The Next Generation, but flatter. There were also demon-red dragon bunnies on the roof, floating just above the glaring interrogation light that every good dentist is required to install upon moving into an office. Upon reflection, the dragon bunnies may have been a side-effect of the Valium, but they seemed real enough at the time. My dentist then arrived; apparently, he had decided that his spirit animal is Olaf the Snowman from Frozen, because he introduced himself in the following manner: “Hi, I’m Dr. Mike, and I like warm hugs.” He sang “In Summer” multiple times throughout the morning, and answered questions using Olaf’s lines. I swear to you that this is not part of my drug-induced hallucinations; Dr. Mike’s assistant confirmed the whole thing. At any rate, there was a great deal of unpleasantness involving loud drills, bright lights, and nasty-looking sharp objects being waved around my face. I knew I would crack if I focused too much on the torture chamber around me, so I did what any dedicated writer would do in my situation: I started writing. Well, not physically, since I didn’t have pen and paper, but I did start telling myself a story in my head. It was inspired by Dr. Olaf and the demon dragon-bunnies that were still scampering around the ceiling and mocking my torment. I think it was actually a pretty decent story – I intend to try to write it down tonight, and see where it goes. At any rate, the next thing I knew Dr. Olaf’s assistant was packing up the instruments of torture, Dr. Olaf himself was turning off the interrogation light, and the dragon-bunnies were informing me that we were done for the day. Retreating into my own story world worked! The only thing Dr. Olaf got out of me was my name, rank, and some pieces of tooth decay. And I get to try it all over again tomorrow. Lucky me, right? Hopefully my friends the demon dragon-bunnies will be there to inspire another story, or else I may not survive this adventure. Wish me luck, courage, and a vivid Valium-aided imagination.